Eyre Square

toiletduck

More delays, ffs when will it all end??

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0627/galway.html

TerrorFirmer

Well, I actually loved it the way it was tbh....lol

I find it might be a little to caught up in being modern to give us the enjoyment the original one did!

But about that article, what a fucking disgrace jesus how long has it been now and the amount they have to show for it is a joke

toiletduck

yeah, i liked the "old" one aswell. i sincerly hope it's finished before next summer!

rabbitinlights

Fúck sake..........

They just quit? They should be shot.

NakedGalwegian

There's only one thing for it:

http://www.geocities.com/nakedgalway/9-jcb.htm

fun bus

NakedGalwegian wrote:

There's only one thing for it:

http://www.geocities.com/nakedgalway/9-jcb.htm

True,but since the construction company has pulled out, they dont even have the jcbs there anymore. they should leave it the way it is and try to pass it off as "modern art". they could say it is a metaphor for the lack of commitment in a hurly-burly, future world gone awry.

The Free Man

ha, i just heard on todayfm, that the empire state building was built quicker than it's taken so far on eyre square :rolleyes:

Asok

Bring in gamma and we will have it done by the end of the week

Tar.Aldarion

hmm ive never seen eyre square not all dug up....maybe i never shall

irishgeo

was up there the last day and **** me its a mess. It looks like something that ran out of money and its left as is.

The new traffic layout is a ****ing nightmare as well.

mike65

I take it the city council can and will sue the contractor. Anyone got some pics of this legendary location?

Mike.

po0k

The company/company's workers are protesting the loss of jobs and livelihood of ~70 Polish workers who have been left in the lurch by a Portumna-based construction company which closed last Thursday.

Sherifu

If I wasn't from Galway i'd be laughing at this story on the news this evening.
City manager Joe McGrath saying he was 'disappointed' doesn't quite cut it.
This project was very badly planned, contracted and carried out.
May we shoot the council, hang kingston construction and bury them all
in a mass grave in Eyre Sq.?
Keith Finnegan show should be funny tomorrow.

Sponge Bob

Get Buckfast PLC and Red Bull Corp to sponsor it as the Late Night After Supermacs Adventure Playground and Baytin Emporium .....exactly as it is today . Make it look like we <ahem> planned it that way. We can claim that some local Gaudi had a vision in another 50 years or so .

Redhairedguy

Got some more bad news for you, chaps!

No one will take the project! Doesn't look like anyone wants it.
Chance of it been finished before I begin withdrawing my pension... very slim.

Hah... the place is rightly f**ked now!

BTW, I'm 68, I'm getting my pension on Friday.

Fobia

I think everyone foresaw that eyre square wasn't going to be developed according to their plans - this is Ireland, not a country where things get done.

Only thing I never understood was: what was wrong with the old one?

po0k

It was in dire need of becoming a hole in which to spend the excess in the budget to guarantee the same amount be allocated in the coming years.

toiletduck

mike65 wrote:

I take it the city council can and will sue the contractor. Anyone got some pics of this legendary location?

Mike.

watch the "progress" here...

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/webcam/

Sherifu

toiletduck wrote:

watch the "progress" here...

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/webcam/

A time lapse of this webcam would show:

on average 2.5 men on site
pipes being moved from one side of the site to the other
holes and piles of dirt appearing and disappearing

Tar.Aldarion

what did it look like before?what was wrong with it and what were they trying to do with it?

danniemcq

before it was great kinda chilled like the arch with loadsa trees and stuff and i don't think anyone really knows why it was dug up. i heard before it started they were meant to make the whole area wi-fi

Dundhoone

its very unusual for a contractor to just abandon site. The council can get another contractor in to complete the work and the original contractor pays for this completion under the terms of the contract. Considering the stage of the work and the high profile of the job, the contractor must be in some serious financial poo.

Theres very little strong arming you can do to speed up a contractor who looked to be in good financial standing at the start and then goes belly up, and it explains in some ways why its taken so long.

Sponge Bob

Dundhoone wrote:

its very unusual for a contractor to just abandon site. The council can get another contractor in to complete the work and the original contractor pays for this completion under the terms of the contract.

The contractor has apparently been paid €3m but has a €1m Completion Bond that can be called in by the Corpo reducing the monies to €2m .

The problem now is that the contractor will go into liquidation and that the contract will be an asset in that liquidation , the contractor has apparently removed all his machinery to Wales .

Between the Bond and the Contract as Asset and the Liquidator and the sorting out of same in the High Court there is no chance that the Contract will be retendered and reawarded for at least a year if not more . I would now expect the square to be finished in 2007 / 2008 at the earliest and most likely the latter.

The best that we can hope for is that the entire square gets fenced off behind a high hoarding which is painted in nice bright colours and maintained graffitti free and that the southern and northern ends of the square are promptly restored to 2 lane traffic operation ...and a zebra crossing at the AIB again NOW FFS and a bit of line painting to keepo the traffic moving .

It seems that a similar episode happened in Galway 2 years ago when a corpo contractor legged it leaving behind some unfinished buildings. The contract has not been restarted since despite the contractor not being in liquidation. Thats stuck in some arbitration or other , the new contractors are still not appointed or even on site.

I fully expect the Corpo legal and management bods to make a complete balls of their initial dealings with the liquidator thereby prolonging this fiasco to the absolute max.

danniemcq

ok if anyone wants to see what it lkooked like before they dug it all up get a copy of this weeks connacht sentinel they have a full page of pics near the back sport pages. don't have a scanner here so sorry can't post them up

Tar.Aldarion

connacht sentinal never heard of that baby...rummages

LegacyUser

Apart from everything that has happened on the site and the various delays all along, the City Manager has some serious questions to answer:

1. A few weeks back ,the City Tribune had a story saying that the Health and Safety Authority had visited the site and considered closing it down.

The following week, the Manager (Joe McGrath) went on Keith Finnegan's show on GBFM and said the story was completely untrue and the HSA never visited the site. A statement was issued to other media outlets in the city saying the story in the Tribune was totally untrue. The HSA have since issued a statement saying they did visit the site on a number of occasions and had spoken with Mr McGrath. Lie No. 1.

2. The same paper had a story the following week saying that SIPTU had strong concerns about working conditions on the site and pay. They said they had voiced their concerns to Joe McGrath and Director of Services Tom Connell. McGrath denied having had any contact with SIPTU. He also cut across Councillor Tom Costello at a Council meeting two weeks ago when cllr Costello raised the SIPTU issue. McGrath said it was nonsense and untrue that SIPTU had gotten involved and kept cutting across the councillor, provoking Costello to walk out of the meeting.

Cllr Michael Leahy also walked out of the meeting when he was refused the opportunity to ask questions by McGrath, who, under the Council's Standing Orders, has no right to do so.

On Keith Finnegan's show this morning, McGrath said he had spoken with SIPTU in the first week of June, thereby exposing Lie No. 2.

3. At that same council meeting, the Manager lost his temper with Councillor Padraic Conneely who demanded that all documentation between Kingston Construction, the Council and SIPTU be made available to him. McGrath said Conneely should go and ask Kingston Construction for the documents. He also became quite annoyed that the Eyre Square issue was back on the agenda at the meeting and complained that there were no issues there.

How apt that Conneely would call kingston construction a "cowboy operator".

McGrath, like every dog on the street, knew for weeks that the Square was going down the pan.

He has some serious questions to answer.

po0k

So where is the lynch mod congregating?

LegacyUser

In reference to Sykpak's comment, I have always seen the lighter side of things, but, having my own business in town that has been seriously affected by the "work" in Eyre Square, I cannot see the funny side of this debacle.

Why are the majority of the local media keen not to apportion blame? Certainly, the number one issue is to get the Square up and running, but does that mean we completely forget about the people in the City Council who are wasting taxpayer's money (and costing this city a fortune).

Example: Joe McGrath on Finnegan's show this mornihg. Finnegan's first question was about the true February 2006 deadline as opposed to the Council's publicised deadline of october 2005 (which in the last few weeks magically changed to November). McGrath avoided the question and Finnegan didn't chase it up. But, hey, maybe that's just bad journalism.

Sorry Syxpak, I'm sure that was in jest, but if you had gone through what I've been through in the last 18 months, you wouldn't be laughing either.

nadir

wow, theve been at it for a long time ok. I wonder how long it will take, at this rate hte council would have been better off doing it themselves.

po0k

monga - I agree wholeheartedly with you.

The comment was 'light-hearted' but it was not in jest. A blocading of McGrath's car/office or barricading him into the toilet might be an idea. It's scandelous and you just know someone's making money on the side while the square is left in a Dresden-esque condition.

JohnCleary

danniemcq wrote:

before it was great kinda chilled like the arch with loadsa trees and stuff and i don't think anyone really knows why it was dug up. i heard before it started they were meant to make the whole area wi-fi

Great... So knackers can just grab peoples laptops now!
Go Galway County Council! :rolleyes: